A 59-year-old man convicted of molesting a child in San Luis Obispo County has been on the run for more than two decades, and the FBI is once again asking the public for help finding him. Erik Kristian Moller, born in Arcadia, California, skipped his sentencing hearing in 2003 rather than face 10 years in state prison for two counts of committing a lewd act upon a child, and he has not been seen since.
According to FBI Los Angeles, Moller was entrusted to care for his female victim almost weekly between 1997 and 2000, while she was between 10 and 14 years old. During that time, per the agency, he gave the girl drugs and alcohol before molesting her. A San Luis Obispo Superior Court jury convicted Moller on the two counts on December 18, 2002, according to the FBI wanted notice tied to the case.
Moller was free on bail while awaiting sentencing, and he simply did not show up when the date arrived. He failed to appear for his sentencing hearing in San Luis Obispo on March 18, 2003, according to the FBI, and a felony bench warrant followed the next day. Because he could not be located, the Superior Court proceeded to sentence him in absentia to 10 years in state prison — a step California courts are permitted to take under Penal Code Section 1193 when a defendant voluntarily absents themselves or cannot be found despite reasonable diligence, as detailed by FindLaw.
Federal Warrant Widens the Search
With Moller nowhere to be found, the case moved beyond state lines. The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California charged him federally with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution on April 24, 2003, opening the door for the FBI to pursue him well outside San Luis Obispo's jurisdiction. That federal district spans seven Southern California counties, including San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles, and Orange, per the U.S. Department of Justice.
Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution warrants exist specifically to let the FBI deploy federal resources against state-level felons who cross jurisdictional lines, the Justice Department notes, with the federal charge typically dismissed once a suspect is returned to state custody. In Moller's case, that federal reach has apparently mattered: an FBI fugitive update indicates he may have traveled from Miami to Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic in 2003, and the bureau says he is known to maintain personal or family ties to Denmark.
A Physical Description Two Decades Old
The FBI's wanted poster, built from a photograph taken in 2001, describes Moller as 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing 140 pounds, with blue eyes and blond or brown hair. He has a 3-inch birthmark on his lower back, a scar on his upper left arm, a tattoo of a falling angel on one upper arm, and a tattoo of an Indian sitting on a horse on the other. Before he fled, according to FBI background records, Moller worked professionally in the aviation fuel business.
Reporting by Cal Coast News confirmed the pattern of grooming and abuse detailed in the case, describing how Moller administered drugs and alcohol to the girl before the molestations occurred. CBS Los Angeles has separately noted that Moller disappeared shortly after his December 2002 conviction and has remained an active fugitive for more than two decades, a span long enough that federal agents periodically re-circulate his photo to try to jog loose new tips.
One of 18 Fugitives on a National List
Moller is currently listed as one of 18 active fugitives in the FBI's national Crimes Against Children wanted index, according to the bureau, which operates 85 Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Forces across the country. His case is tracked in the National Crime Information Center under number W234136407.
The FBI is asking anyone with information to call 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit a tip at tips.fbi.gov. Tips can also be submitted directly to a local FBI field office or the nearest American embassy or consulate, the bureau says. It remains unclear whether investigators have received any viable leads in recent years, or whether Moller — now approaching six decades of age and two decades a fugitive — remains in the Dominican Republic, Denmark, or somewhere else entirely.
